Here's another use of Birch I came up with thanks to Jim Jakosh

I’ve collected a bunch of Birch branches. This pen/pencil holder is something I came up to use up the large pieces that won’t work for anything else. The black walnut is cutoff scraps from a friend with a cabinet shop. I’ve got a bunch of this birch and need any ideas you can provide. It looks like I’ll be getting a lot more as there’s a infestation of bugs hitting Birch trees in my area. I’ve got my eyes on at least 6 more trees that might be getting cut down. I’ll be knocking on doors in the next few weeks.

Bob, I like to cut small branches into squares, and either use them for tricorns or glue them up to make bigger blocks that are turnable as bowls. You might look into that. Also, there’s someone out there, I think it might actually be Jim, who likes to make bird houses out of the small logs.

Nice little pencil holders but will work to hold many other things from tool to flowers and make great gifts.Taking a piece of birch log and hollowing it out makes a nice flower hanging box and the back side of the bark also has a nice look that I have used

Hi again. Well to answer the question of how I hollowed out the middle. Guess you says I’m pretty lazy. I bought a 3” Forstner bit. I have to use a large hand screw clamp that I clamp to my drill press table as it’s pretty hard to keep a grip on these when I’m drilling out the cavity. I only hollow out a 4” deep cavity. Hope that answers everyone’s questions. Thanks for the positive comments.

Neat idea! Very rustic. If you are looking for a more elegant design the Russian jeweler Faberge (he of the famous enameled eggs) carved elegant cigarette cases out of Russian Birch – then adorned them with gold and gems.. I saw one in a museum a few years ago – very sleek curved design, almost Art Deco in style. Good luck and thanks for posting.